Area Manager

Job Description

RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES

The Area Manager is responsible for providing leadership, direction, and resource stewardship for manufacturing department in a high-volume manufacturing site located in Ritchie County, West Virginia. This role is accountable for driving timely and impactful improvements to the operating environment and for delivering performance at or above expectations for safety, quality, delivery, cost, and engagement. This position will lead the execution of cross-functional strategies and plans that ensure we execute the company’s manufacturing excellence roadmap. The goals of this role are to manage structured change and combine long-term thinking with near term actions and decisions.

Successful candidates demonstrate their commitment to their team by taking direct responsibility for the safety of the people who work in your business, build trust and value the experience of the team around them and look to develop the people, sets high expectations for self and others, is a change agent and an effective communicator, and shows personal resilience. This position reports to the Plant Manager and will have supervisors as direct reports.  

This role is accountable for driving timely and impactful improvements to the culture and work environment by modeling and driving others to behave in ways that are in support of our core values, mission, vision, as well as our behaviors & mindsets.  Successful candidates demonstrate their commitment to their teams by setting high expectations for self and others.  They are change agents, effective communicators, show personal resilience and engage in activities that are customer and employee centric.

SAFETY FOCUSED

• Ensure a safe work environment.  Promptly address safety issues and ensure OSHA standard and ISO 9000 compliance (if applicable).  Monitor associate activities to ensure adherence to safety policies, safety initiatives and timely completion of required safety training
• Maintains and promotes an organized work environment to ensure a safe, efficient operation
• May serve as a facilitator or co-leader on a designated Safety Team/Committee
• Communicates EHS goals and expectations, standards, and issues/concerns throughout the manufacturing department. Will collaborate with other leaders on the same.
• Identifies and investigates incidents and assigns responsibility to others on team as appropriate. Tracks corrective actions to completion
• Maintains a planning process to set measurable goals to improve performance based on prioritized EHS risks and issues
• Develops action plans that define how the department will meet its EHS goals
• Works with EHS team to assign responsibilities, required resources and completion dates
• Take responsibility for the safety and security of the people who work in our business, the products we supply to customers, and the company’s physical assets; identify, assess, and address any immediate safety and security issues
• As applicable, oversee management of hazardous waste programs in collaboration with Safety Team as well as taking preventive measures and waste minimalization where applicable

QUALITY

• Ensure quality to standard. Establishes, maintains, and facilitates product quality specifications
• Responsible for quality of all products and materials from designated areas of responsibility
• Meeting all production specifications, implementation and sustainability of QC programs and providing relevant information to inform vendors and suppliers as it relates to them meeting our specifications of incoming raw materials
• Proactively review practices for correct, quality workmanship and process flow, along with timeliness.
• Help drive all TQM activities within the department and in collaboration with other departments
• Address and participate in the effective resolution of customer complaints
• Travel to customers and job sites as needed, as well as partner with members of cross-functional groups (such as Sales, R&D,etc.) to ensure customer satisfaction is met

DATA ANALYSIS AND PROBLEM SOLVING/DELIVERY

• Ability to define problems, collect & synthesize data from various sources, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions
• Use daily management metrics and control charts to conduct fact-based analysis of current state and propose solutions to remove root causes in a sustainable way
• Champion problem solving and accountability throughout the manufacturing department and in collaboration with other groups
• Diagnose any potential areas needing improvement and identify and implement process improvements to increase efficiency
• Reviews data to seek process, people and machine improvements to obtain achieve desired results
• Ensure and monitor manufacturing area is scheduling to plan
• Ability to manage multiple shift operation
• Meet or exceed financial goals consistently by focusing on organizational and departmental goals in a way that is aligned with core values, vision, mission and behaviors & mindsets
• Coordinate manufacturing activities with all shifts , departments, and suppliers to obtain optimum production.
• Responsible for determining appropriate levels of staffing for production
• Oversee the execution of manufacturing operations and schedules based on sales requirements and departmental capacity
• Use qualitative and quantitative approaches to forecasting labor demand and mix
• Invest a substantial amount of time reinforcing our manufacturing excellence roadmap, holding themselves and others accountable for performance and leadership commitments
• Drive simplification efforts, particularly those manufacturing activities “draining” the operations cost structure
• Identify and implement ways of working that make continuous improvement and employee engagement a way of life within the department
• Ensure everyone is working towards the right priorities, participating, and putting their skills and experience toward value-added, customer-centric activities always
• Optimize schedule to balance production efficiency, deliver supply, and promote employee well-being
• Partner with maintenance department to ensure effective equipment utilization and that safety measures are in place.  Coordinate scheduling of downtime for equipment maintenance and repairs in collaboration with maintenance department
• Ensure communication of results vs. standards and prepare corrective actions/recommendations when results are not met
• Ensures complete and timely product delivery. Collaborates with scheduling department as it pertains to manufacturing scheduling activities and communicates schedules to direct reports accordingly
• Prepares and distributes production reports

COST

• Drive simplification efforts within the department, particularly removing manufacturing activities “draining” the operations cost structure
• Assist in preparation of departmental budget as needed in collaboration with plant manager and finance
• Create a work environment where employees are energized, excited and motivated to continuously improve departmental processes, delight our customers and accomplish both individual and team goals and financial objectives
• Consistently ensure that area job responsibilities are promptly and efficiently carried out and nurture a high level of leadership and team performance
• Maintain an environment that influences how employees feel physically and mentally at work and reflect attention to detail, not only in the quality of our output, but in our daily productive routines
• Continuously look for opportunities to reduce costs of goods measured as savings year to year including direct labor and overhead
• Develop strategies for COGS reduction while managing growth and/or expansion

ENGAGEMENT

• Unwavering commitment to model core values, behaviors & mindsets and communicate same expectations of team.
• Set the expectation that relationships between supervisors, peers, employees, customers and vendors are respectful and inclusive
• Responsible for the coaching and development of direct reports as well as providing direction for supervisors to engage in the same with all associates within the department
• Build and lead high-performing organizations by working with others to create teams that are collaborative
• Proven leadership skills and the ability to effectively motivate others to perform to the best of their ability
• Provide guidance and support to staff, line supervisors, and group leaders in the following areas: general communication, overtime administration, attendance tracking, employee relations, employee issues including creation of corrective actions, assisting with incident investigations, layoff/recall procedures, disciplinary/separation procedures, and problem solving and resolutions, ensuring consistency between lines
• Ability to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences
• Establish, build and maintain business responsibilities with co-workers, customers, suppliers, etc
• Maintain environments that influence how we feel physically and mentally at work and reflect attention to detail not only in the quality of our output, but in our daily productive routines
• Foster a culture, including ways of working and behaviors, that is congruent with our mission, values, and behaviors & mindsets
• Provides tactical direction as needed for all employees within the manufacturing department
• Communicate with cross-functional team leaders, group leaders and associates on other shifts
• Excellent organizational skills and the ability to create guidelines and make recommendations for improvements.
• Performs other duties as assigned

Qualifications

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor’s degree is highly desired, preferably in engineering or business. In lieu of a degree, a minimum of 7 years of significant, relevant professional experience with an additional 4 years in a leadership capacity
• With a Bachelor’s degree, a minimum of 5 years previous experience in manufacturing, including packaging, process engineering, warehousing, and assembly and a minimum of 4 years in people management role is required
• Proven track record of application of lean tools, processes, and systems to deliver sustained continuous improvement
• Experienced leading teams through compliant execution of formally defined management systems
• Experience participating on cross-functional teams and driving decision-making through collaboration
• Experience overseeing operational metrics
• Possesses strong knowledge of manufacturing supply chain functions, including planning, quality, and inventory control
• Proficient in all Microsoft Office products
• Excellent leadership skills with an understanding of how best to utilize and deploy talent
• Demonstrated influencing, relationship building, and effective facilitation and change management skills
• Strong business acumen, commercial awareness, and strategic thinking skills
• Demonstrated ability to successfully develop and execute an operations strategy
• Must model the Company’s core values and leadership

Additional Information

Why work for Cornerstone Building Brands?

Our teams are at the heart of our purpose to positively contribute to the communities where we live, work and play. Full-time* team members receive** medical, dental and vision benefits starting day 1. Other benefits include PTO, paid holidays, FSA, life insurance, LTD, STD, 401k, EAP, discount programs, tuition reimbursement, training, and professional development. You can also join one of our Employee Resource Groups which help support our commitment to providing a diverse and inclusive work environment.

*Full-time is defined as regularly working 30+ hours per week. **Union programs may vary depending on the collective bargaining agreement.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines